The U.S. women's national team played in the two highest- 0 and 0 in the opening rounds of the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Vancouver, Canada.
SPEEDSKATING EARNS SIX MEDALS AT WORLD CUP
Led by Shani Davis's (Chicago, Ill.) two gold medals in the 1000m., Team USA captured six medals at World Cup 4 held Jan. 21-22 in Kearn, Utah. Heather Richardson (High Point, N.C.) earned a silver medal in the 1000m and a bronze medal in the 500m while Tucker Fredricks (Janesville, Wis.) earned his fifth consecutive world cup podium finish with a pair of bronze medals in the 500m.
BIATHLON
The men's relay quartet of Lowell Bailey (Lake Placid, N.Y.), Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, Alaska), Tim Burke (Paul Smiths, N.Y.) and Leif Nordgren (Marine, Minn.) earned a top-10 finish at the men's 4x7.5 km relay at World Cup 6 in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy. Individually, Susan Dunklee (Barton, Vt.) scored a career-best 17th-place finish in the 7.5 km sprint while Burke earned 12th in the 10 km sprint.
In the mass start competitions, Dunklee, competing in her first-ever world cup mass start event, finished 27th in the 12.5 km race while her teammates Burke and Bailey posted finishes of 20th and 21st, respectively, in the15 km event.
BOBSLED/SKELETON
In skeleton, all three Team USA competitors placed inside the top 10 at the men's world cup in St. Moritz, Switzerland, led by Matt Antoine's (Prairie du Chien, Wis.) bronze medal run. Kimber Gabryszak (Park City, Utah), posted a career-best effort of seventh place.
In bobsleigh, duo Jazmine Fenlator (Wayne, N.J.) and Hillary Werth (Springfield, Ill.) led with a career-best eighth-place finish at the world cup competition. USA-1's Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah) and Steven Langton (Melrose, Mass.) finished fourth in the two-man bobsled race. Holcomb, Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas), Langton and Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.) also placed fourth in the four-man event.
JUDO
Paralympic judo athletes Dartanyan Crockett (Cleveland, Ohio) and Myles Porter (Fremont, Ohio) earned gold medals on Jan. 21 at the Pujalahti Games in Nastola, Finland. In the gold-medal matches, Crockett defeated Russia's Oleg Zykov and Porter defeated Aleksandr Parasyuk. Ron Hawthorne (Kansas City, Kan.) also earned a silver medal.
The quartet of Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.), Chris Mazdzer (Saranac Lake, N.Y.), Christian Niccum (Woodinville, Wash.) and Jayson Terdiman (Berwick, Pa.) finished second in the luge team relay at world cup competition in Winterberg, Germany. Doubles luge team Niccum and Terdiman finished in fifth place, their best world cup finish of the season.
SOCCER
The U.S. men's national team opened 2012 play with a 1-0 victory over Venezuela in Glendale, Ariz.
Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, Vt.) and Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, Calif.) both posted victories in the snowboardcross world cup event hosted in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.
TRACK & FIELD
John Nunn (San Diego, Calif.) won the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's 50 km Race Walk held in Santee, Calif. With a time of 4:04.38, he bested his personal record by nearly 10 minutes and easily beat the previous course record of 4:28.53. Erin Taylor-Talcott (Owego, N.Y.) broke three American Records as the first woman allowed to compete as a guest in the trials.
WINTER YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES
BIATHLON
Anna Kubek (Duluth, Minn.) led the U.S. in the 7.5 km pursuit and 6 km sprint with respective finishes of 10th and 13th places. Sean Doherty (Center Conway, N.H.) paced the U.S. in the boys' competition with a 12th-place finish in the 7.5 km sprint and 14th in the 10 km pursuit.
In the cross-country-biathlon mixed relay, Kubek, Heather Mooney (Peru, Vt.), Doherty and Paddy Caldwell (Lyme Center, N.H.) earned the bronze medal with a total time of 1:05:23.
BOBSLED/SKELETON
Codie Bascue (Whitehall, N.Y.) and Jake Peterson (Princeton, Minn.) finished seventh in the two-man bobsled event.
All three skeleton competitors placed within the top-10, led by seventh place efforts by Anthony Herringshaw (Schenectady, N.Y.) and Elizabeth Maxwell (Draper, Utah). Timi Earl (Heber City, Utah) placed ninth.
In addition to their bronze medal cross-country-biathlon performance, Heather Mooney finished 13th in the 5 km classic while teammate Paddy Caldwell placed 16th in the 10 km classic race.
Korey Dropkin (Southborough, Mass.) won the bronze medal in mixed doubles with teammate Marina Verenich of Russia after a 6-5 win in the third-place competition. The duo became the first team to score a perfect end in the Winter Youth Olympic Games mixed doubles event. In team competition, Dropkin, Sarah Anderson (Broomall, Pa.), Tom Howell (Brick, N.J.) and Taylor Anderson (Broomall, Pa.) finished with a 7-1 record, good for fifth place overall.
Jordan Bauth (Lancaster, N.Y.) teamed up with skaters from Japan and Belarus to capture gold in the National Organizing Committee NOC mixed team competition.
ICE HOCKEY
The U.S. youth Olympic boys' ice hockey team fell 7-5 to Canada in the bronze- medal game. Team USA closed the tournament with a 2-0-0-4 (W-OTW-OTL-L) overall record.
LUGE
Summer Britcher (Glen Rock, Pa.) in women's singles, Tucker West (Ridgefield, Conn.) in men's singles, and Ty Andersen (Alpine, Utah) and Pat Edmunds (Park City, Utah) in doubles, combined to capture the gold medal in the team relay.
SNOWBOARDING
Ben Ferguson (Bend, Ore.) claimed the gold medal in halfpipe snowboarding while Arielle Gold (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) earned her second silver medal of the Winter Youth Olympic Games for her impressive run in the ladies' slopestyle event.
UPCOMING CALENDAR
19-29 - Soccer Vancouver, B.C. CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
22-29 - Figure Skating San Jose, Calif. U.S. Figure Skating Championships
24- 2 - Skiing (Nordic) Minneapolis, Minn. IPC World Cup
25-27 - Skiing (Alpine) Arte Terme, Italy IPC World Cup
25-29 - Equestrian Wellington, Fla. CPEDI3* Team Qualifying Competition
26-28 - Figure Skating Plymouth, Mich. Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships
26-28 - Figure Skating Hershey, Pa. Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships
27-28 - Luge Winterberg, Germany Junior World Cup #5
27-29 - Equestrian Wellington, Fla. World Dressage Masters
27-29 - Synchronized Skating Salzburg, Austria Mozart Cup
27-29 - Speedskating Washington, DC 2012 U.S. Junior Short Track Championships
27-29 - Curling Bemidji, Minn. America's Challenge
28-29 - Luge St. Moritz, Switzerland World Cup #7
28-29 - Speedskating Calgary, Canada Long Track World Sprint Championships
28- 4 - Curling Madison, Wis. U.S. Junior National Championships
29 - Triathlon Butte, Mont. Winter USA Triathlon 2012 National Championships
29- 4 - Bobsled/skeleton Whistler, Canada World Cup
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.